At the conclusion of the 2024 PAFRA World Championship Rodeo in Clovis, New Mexico, Sept. 21, Adam Pollard and Tarrant Stewart—who have each supported the Professional Armed Forces Rodeo Association in varying capacities for many years—got to take home World Champion buckles after splitting the win in the team roping.

2024 PAFRA World Champion Header: Adam Pollard

Throughout his life, 53-year-old USMC veteran Adam Pollard has won plenty of awards from his time in the arena—enough to earn him a 2021 induction into the Military Rodeo Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City’s National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum—but the PAFRA World Champion Header buckle he won in September was a first for the Midland, Texas, native who served as PAFRA’s president in 2013. 

“I was on a heel horse,” Pollard said, explaining that he’s been focused on improving his heeling and was hoping to put a run together on that end. “My header missed in the first round, and I had entered on the head side. I thought, ‘Well, here we go. Let’s see what we can do.’”

Pollard, who is currently serving as president of the Military Rodeo Cowboys Association, drew a partner in 28-year-old Army veteran Dakota Smitherman, who won the World Championship title in the tie-down this year.

“He’s a very talented young man,” Pollard said of his heeler. “He rides the right kind of horses. He practices the right way. Things that, as somebody who’s been roping for 30 years, I watched that kid rope and I go, ‘He’s figuring it out the right way.’ His technique is right. His horses ride the right way; he’s very relaxed. It’s an awesome thing to watch.”

2024 PAFRA World Champion Heeler: Tarrant Stewart

Pollard shared the winner’s circle with Tarrant Stewart, whose dad, Charlie Stewart, is a Vietnam veteran and a 20-year PAFRA member who’s still competing. 

“My twin brother [Newell] and I got grandfathered into that organization,” Stewart explained, hinting toward PAFRA’s family-friendly membership setup. “I’m a big sponsor of it, and my dad was a Vietnam vet. He was there. So my brother and I, we got to go and rope with our dad. That’s how we got into that about 10 years ago.”

In that time, Stewart has secured himself a few World Championship buckles, including in 2019 and in 2018, when he shared the title with his brother. This year, he headed for active-duty Airman Dakota Lindboe.

“I live in Floresville, Texas, and Dakota actually moved to Floresville about a mile down from my house,” Stewart said. “We met at a jackpot, and I invited him to start roping with us. He and I have become friends and now we practice together.”

Lindboe, originally from Florida, grew up pulling steers for guys like Kaleb Driggers and Clint Summers, but he put the rope down in 2009 to join the military. By the time he got back to it, Super Looper and Spin to Win had become The Team Roping Journal. This is the first time he and his wife, Mandy, who is also active-duty Air Force and a barrel racer, entered up at the PAFRA event.

“We had an awesome time and thought it was a really good event,” said Lindboe, who was riding a horse he’d acquired in the last six months. “He’s a 16-year-old gelding I got from Matt Schieck. I think Cash Duty was riding him. He’s everything I need. He’s fast. He’s good and levelheaded. I was really lucky to find him.”

For the World Championship, Stewart was putting in the practice hours on one of his Riata horses, Hez Short On Time. 

“I’ve got a 5-year-old that we futuritied on, and we’ve been using him at the Riata,” Stewart said, explaining that he missed last year’s PAFRA due to a scheduling conflict with the Riata Championships. “I’ll tell you this: I’ve heeled about three ropings (I’m predominantly a header), and I was able to catch three for Mr. Dakota. So that was good.”

Pollard and Stewart both offered a nod to PAFRA’s leadership, noting that entries in the team roping may have doubled since last year. The organization also just announced a new March 1, 2025, rodeo to be held at the Cowtown Coliseum in the Fort Worth Stockyards.

—TRJ—

Thank you to Equinety for helping us share stories of military members, veterans and first responders in the team roping community.